Richard Ross to Retire as the Kansas Supreme Court's Official Reporter

Richard Ross, the Supreme Court's official reporter since 1978, is retiring in June, 2016.

TOPEKA — After more than 40 years with the Kansas judicial branch, Richard Ross will hang up his editing pencil June 3 and retire from his job as the Supreme Court's official reporter, a position he has had since the court was still located in the Statehouse.

Ross says what he will miss most are the people.

"The judicial branch has been a great place to work," he said. "Everyone is professional and works hard. It's also a very friendly environment."

Ross was hired as second assistant to the official reporter in 1975, right after he graduated law school. Eighteen months later, in January 1978, he was named the official reporter by then Chief Justice Harold Fatzer.

At just 28 years old, Ross is pretty sure he was the youngest reporter ever appointed, although he said he hasn't done the research to prove it. However, when he answered the call from the reporter of decisions for the U.S. Supreme Court to help develop a professional organization for reporters, he said, "I was easily the youngest person in the room." He is the last charter member to still belong to the Association of Reporters of Judicial Decisions.

When he published his first Kansas Reports, a bound volume of Supreme Court decisions, he dedicated it to his predecessor, William A. Dumars, to recognize him for publishing 60 volumes — 163 through 222 — which Ross deemed "a record accomplishment, since no previous Supreme Court Reporter published more than 36 volumes."

When Ross retires June 3, he will have published 81 volumes of the Kansas Reports and started volume 82. Volumes bearing Ross' name number 223 through 303. He can also take credit for 51 volumes of Kansas Court of Appeals Reports, numbered 2 through 52.